The present invention relates to liners for helmets, hats, welding masks, safty shields, caps or other head coverings and more specifically to limited life or disposable liners for use with head coverings.
It is desirable to provide for the removal of moisture in the form of perspiration and the like from the skin of human beings. Perspiration generated by humans, particularly those involved in physical exercise and labor, can run down from an individual's head and into his or her eyes and can also drip on undesirable areas, such as onto a workpiece. A common method of removal of such moisture involves the placement of moisture-absorbent cloth, such as cotton terrycloth or the like, against an individual's skin. The use of headbands of moisture absorbent cloth is common among participants in athletics to keep perspiration from flowing into eyes and impairing the vision of the exercising individuals. Similarly, hats are commonly provided with sweat bands to absorb perspiration from the head of a hat wearer.
Examples of known prior art approaches for trapping perspiration from a user's head are as follows.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,123 of Broersma discloses a perspiration absorbing pad extending arcuately at the front of a helmet interior and which is bonded to an interior wall surface of a helmet liner.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,502,156 and 4,540,414 of Wishman disclose, at FIG. 6, a hat or sweat band secured within and around the crown of a hat. The sweat band comprises a strip of non-woven fabric having an unfused side facing inwardly to engage the head of the wearer of the hat in a moisture-conducting relationship. The strip of fabric has a fused side disposed adjacent to an inner surface of an interior moisture absorbent strip to facilitate the transfer of moisture to this latter strip. The outer surface of the interior moisture absorbent strip is positioned against a substantially moisture-impervious backing sheet or strip which contacts the inner surface of the crown of the hat. The lower edges of the elements forming the sweat band are secured about the lower periphery of the crown by a suitable means with stitching being the specifically mentioned approach.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,514 of Sundahl et al. discloses a generally rectangular perspiration absorbing pad which is frictionally retained by adjacent inner edges of padding in a helmet. The absorbing pad is removable and has multiple air flow openings. When this pad is soaked with perspiration, it is removed, wrung out and replaced. The padding which frictionally retains the removable pad in place is bonded to an inner surface of a liner of the helmet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,115 of Broersma discloses a helmet with a removable pad for absorbing perspiration. The pad is described as including a porous fabric interliner, for example, of porous polypropylene, with the pad itself consisting, for example, of reticulated polyethylene foam.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 1,571,827 of Wharten discloses a sweat band for hats formed by folding an elongated strip and, in one form, with padding inserted into or between the folded layers.
Although prior art liners are known, a need exists for an improved limited life or disposable liner for helmets, hats, caps and other head coverings.